On March 2, 2011 AGA filed a non-binding Statement of Issues to be raised in the court case AGA v. EPA. AGA challenges several provision in EPA s mandatory greenhouse gas reporting rule for natural gas systems, because the rule is so vague and confusing that our members cannot determine what the rule requires them to do. In addition, many of the confusing terms and requirements are undefined and appeared for the first time in the final rule, so AGA had no opportunity to comment on them, as required by law. We challenge these provisions on the grounds that they are vague, arbitrary and capricious or otherwise not in accordance with law. Among the list of issues, AGA challenges the following undefined terms: "custody transfer city gate station," "non custody transfer city gate station" and "facility with respect to natural gas distribution". AGA also lists challenges to leak measurement requirements, emissions quantification, and requirements for natural gas distribution, underground storage and LNG facilities. See AGA s administrative Petition for Reconsideration, filed with EPA on March 2, 2011, for a more complete explanation of the problems we have identified in the Subpart W greenhouse gas reporting rule, and how we want EPA to review the rule to fix these problems. If EPA agrees to make these changes, we should be able to resolve the litigation and withdraw our court challenge.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently issued a notice of proposed rulemaking for residential natural gas furnaces, which would mandate that all non-weatherized natural gas furnaces manufactured must have a 92 percent or higher efficiency rating. These proposed standards would eliminate efficient, non-condensing furnaces, causing an undue burden on, and significant costs for, many natural gas customers.